Ocean research in Canada failed by lack of national strategy and coordination: new report

LARRY PYNN, VANCOUVER SUN11.06.2013

Canada’s failure to adopt a “comprehensive national strategy or vision” for ocean science is confounding efforts to plan for the future and make efficient use of funding for ocean research, a new national report released Wednesday concludes.

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Canada's failure to adopt a "comprehensive national strategy or vision" for ocean science is confounding efforts to plan for the future and make efficient use of funding for ocean research, a new national report released Wednesday concludes.

The report by the Council of Canadian Academies cites a lack of collaboration on ocean research, noting that, unlike the U.S., Germany, and the United Kingdom, Canada has "no effective national-level mechanism to coordinate the allocation of resources and facilitate the sharing of infrastructure and knowledge" at all levels of ocean research.

Gaps in information and data-access also make it difficult to determine the number of active researchers, the levels of spending on ocean science, and the latest updates on key areas of research, the report finds.

David Strangway, former president of the University of B.C. and chair of the "expert panel" that produced the report, said research is critical to the responsible use of Canada's ocean resources — biological, mineral, or energy based — as well as the understanding of emerging issues such as climate change and ocean acidification.

"We're at a fork in the road," Strangway told a news conference. "If we don't take all of this really seriously and understand the significance of the oceans to Canada, we are not going to continue to be leaders."

The council, a non-profit science-based organization designed to influence public policy, is funded by the Royal Society of Canada, Canadian Academy of Engineering, and Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. The report was conducted for the Canadian Consortium of Ocean Research Universities.

Commenting on the report, Howard Brunt, vice-president of research at the University of Victoria, said the federal government has a particularly important role to play in coordinating science. "We benefit from having a broader and brighter light shine on what we're all doing."

Brunt noted that Canada has a strong international reputation in ocean research and some impressive research facilities, including UVic's own NEPTUNE and VENUS ocean-observatory programs in the Pacific, icebreaker-based research by Quebec's Laval University in the Arctic, and an ocean-tracking network in the Atlantic by Halifax's Dalhousie University.

But the fact is, one researcher in one part of the country might be oblivious to another researcher's similar work elsewhere on the same subject. "People often work in fairly deeply isolated areas and may not have the full picture," he noted in an interview.

Genome Canada is one model that could be adopted for the oceans, bringing together researchers from academia, the provincial and federal governments, and private industry, Brunt said.

"We don't have anything equivalent to that in terms of ocean science and technology," he said.

The report noted that data and information needed to assess ocean-science research are held by a large number of institutions, and are recorded in formats that are not comparable and are often incomplete or inaccessible to the public.

The Coast Guard operates the Canadian ocean-research fleet, which includes several large oceanographic vessels and a dedicated research icebreaker that provides access to the Arctic, the report said. "Half of these vessels were built over 25 years ago, and older vessels lead to more breakdowns, higher costs, and operational days lost to maintenance."

There is also a need for broader research into social and ecological aspects of ocean governance and not just narrow health research, such as specific pathogens and biotoxins, the report found.

At the international level, Canada ranks seventh in the number of peer-reviewed papers, and 11th in scientific impact based on citations, and "has the lowest domestic growth index of the 25 leading countries in ocean science," the report said. "This implies that ocean science is losing ground relative to other fields faster in Canada than in other countries, which could lead to a decline in Canada's position in research."

Frank Stanek, spokesman for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said science is the "foundation of our business" and that Ottawa is "increasingly collaborative" with researchers in universities and other governments, organizations and marine-based industries.

He also noted that as part a $5.2-billion investment for the Coast Guard's fleet-renewal program allocated in 2012, the federal government will extend the life of 16 Coast Guard vessels and complete mid-life modernizations on an additional two existing hovercraft over the next 10 years. This investment will also enable the Coast Guard to procure 18 to 21 new vessels, in addition to five new medium-endurance multi-tasked vessels and five offshore-patrol vessels for its fleet, he said.

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Ocean research in Canada failed by lack of national strategy and coordination: new report

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